Einstein health expert plays an important role in development of U.S. News 'Best Diets' rankings

Jun 8 2011

Yasmin Mossavar-Rahmani, Ph.D., R.D. of Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University played an important role in the development of the "Best Diets" rankings, which U.S. News released today. Dr. Mossavar-Rahmani, who specializes in nutrition assessment and intervention, is assistant professor of epidemiology & population health at Einstein.

Dr. Mossavar-Rahmani was a member of an invited panel of 22 health experts, who were carefully selected and relied on by U.S. News to develop its rankings. The experts reviewed information about 20 well-known diets, from Atkins to the Zone, and rated each diet on specific measures such as heart health and nutritional completeness.

Using the experts' feedback and ratings, U.S. News developed five rankings to address a broad range of consumers' dieting goals and needs. They included Best Weight-Loss Diets (Weight Watchers ranked #1); Best Diets Overall (the DASH Diet ranked #1 overall); and Best Heart-Healthy Diets (the Ornish Diet ranked #1). Key factors in selecting the top diets included not only nutritional value and weight loss but also the palatability of a given diet over time. (Visit usnews.com for the complete rankings and methodology.)

Dr. Mossavar-Rahmani teaches an elective course on nutrition and health for first-year medical students at Einstein and has been conducting research on nutrition for over two decades. She is currently the nationwide principal investigator for Study of Latinos: Nutrition & Physical Activity Assessment Study (SOLNAS), an ancillary to the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos (SOL), the largest ever study of Hispanic health in the U.S., which is funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). In SOLNAS, she investigates measurement errors in participants' self-reported diet and physical activity. She is also the principal investigator at Einstein for the SOL Sueño/Sleep Study, which is investigating the association of sleep habits with obesity, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and hypertension among Latinos in the U.S.